A NORTH-East man has been handed a suspended prison sentence after breaching an injunction banning the revelation of the new identities of James Bulgers killers.

The High Court said that nine-month sentences, suspended for 15 months, imposed on Dean Liddle, from Sunderland, and Neil Harkins, from Bridlington, East Yorkshire, were not only to punish them, but to deter others from breaking the law via social media.

Sir John Thomas, President of the Queens Bench Division, said the court would take the exceptional course of suspending the sentences in this case, but there was little prospect of an offender avoiding a very substantial immediate custodial sentence if there was any future similar publication.

Attorney General Dominic Grieve brought contempt proceedings against Liddle and Harkins, who put photos on Twitter and Facebook respectively in February this year, two days after the 20th anniversary of the toddlers murder, which purported to depict Jon Venables and Robert Thompson as adults.

They admitted breaching a January 2001 injunction, binding on the whole world, imposed before Venables and Thompson were released, which prohibits the solicitation or publication of any information purporting to identify their physical appearance, whereabouts, movements or new identities.

Mr Grieve said the public interest required its enforcement to mitigate the very real risk of serious physical harm or death to anyone who might be identified, whether correctly or incorrectly, as being either of the killers.

Sir John, sitting in London with Mr Justice Tugendhat, said that Liddle, 28, and Harkins, 35, became part of a determined Internet campaign on the anniversary.

They joined in that campaign and we cannot accept it is in any way exculpatory that others were doing it," he said.

He said that both men had removed the offending pictures quickly and apologised, but a fine would be wholly inappropriate in what was an unprecedented case.

He added: Vigilantism has no place in a civilised country and it is for the purpose of deterring such conduct that we must have particular regard.

After the ruling, the Attorney General said: An internet posting takes seconds, but can have major consequences.

These people were fully aware that there is an injunction in place which prevents publication of any images or information claiming to identify anyone as Jon Venables or Robert Thompson, yet they carried on.

It has been in place for many years and applies to both media organisations and individuals.

The order is meant not only to protect Venables and Thompson but also those members of the public who have been incorrectly identified as being either of them.